10 Minutes To A Decluttered Glove Box

Spring cleaning isn’t just for your home. Your car could use a good once-over, too. Take the glove box, for example. This repository of fast food napkins, old receipts, spare change, and other random objects often gets overlooked. But with just a little effort and 10 minutes of well-spent time, you can clean and organize this handy compartment as part of your overall car-cleaning endeavors. Read on for tips to tackling your glove box.

Step 1: Take It All Out

There’s no telling what you’ll find in that easy-to-reach storage slot. The only way to find out: Pull everything out – wrappers and papers and ketchup packets alike – and place all the goodies in a pile. Organizing will start next, so for now just pull and pile.

Step 2: Separate Trash from Treasure

OK, you might not find “treasure” per se … but there are sure to be some things you’d like to keep in the jumble. Your vehicle’s owner’s manual, for example. That’s an important guide to the best way to care for your car – a road map to the dashboard’s various lights and warnings, a schedule of recommended services, and other helpful info. It’s a definite keeper. You also might find essentials like proof of insurance cards and registration, as well as useful items like a flashlight, hand wipes, spare charging cables, or a good old-fashioned folding map.

This “keep” pile will go back into the glove box. Make another pile of items that might be better stored elsewhere, like inside your house. Anything that doesn’t make the cut? Toss it!

Step 3: Clean It Out

With the glove box empty, you can do a quick sweep to get rid of dust and debris. Use a cleanser and cloth to achieve fresh-from-the-dealership shine, and then sit back to admire your handiwork.

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Step 4: Put Back the Keepers

Once your glove box is squeaky clean (and dry, if you used a cleanser), it’s time to load it back up. Limit it to only the necessities to avoid accumulating more clutter and ensure that everything inside is easy to reach when you need it. Arrange frequently used items toward the front, and lesser-used things near the back so you don’t have to scramble through the glove box to find what you’re looking for.

That’s all there is to it! Go ahead and give yourself a gold star on your spring cleaning checklist.